Exclusive | NYC designer found dead on Montauk yacht harassed and accused of fraud by boat owner days before death, texts reveal

Hamptons fashion entrepreneur Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra said she was being “harassed” and accused of fraud by financier Chris Durnan just days before she was found dead on his boat, texts obtained by The Post reveal.The 33-year-old Irish-born swimwear designer had Durnan blocked on her phone on Aug.1, 2025, when he unleashed fiery text messages at her East x East business partner Dylan Grace accusing the pair of fraud.Nolan-O’Slattara promised Grace she would meet with Durnan — who had bought roughly 13% of their company in 2022 for $250,000 — to address the claims of financial misbehavior.“Oh god .

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I’ll meet him Monday,” Nolan-O’Slatarra assured Grace, according to screen shots of the exchange provided to The Post.“Can you unblock him for the weekend,” Grace requested.Martha replied, “Did it.”The next day, Nolan-O’Slatarra, who had blocked Durnan from calling her months earlier, complained that Durnan was aggressively messaging her.“I’m getting harassed,” Nolan-O’Slatarra wrote to Grace on Aug.

2.“He won’t stop texting me like 10 times.”The Irish-born beauty wrote that Durnan was saying “shite like you ghosting me” and that Durnan was “looking for attention such a kid.”Two days later, on Aug.

4, Nolan-O’Slatarra met Durnan for a business meeting.It would end in her death.

Nolan-O’Slatarra met Durnan on his boat “Hell in a Bucket” at about 7:30 p.m.at the Montauk Yacht Club and the two took the boat out for a tour and drank champagne at sunset, which was at 8:08 p.m.

that night, according to a New York Magazine report.The pair then returned at an unknown time to the yacht club and moved to Durnan’s other boat, “Ripple,” the magazine reported.What transpired is still the subject of a police investigation.

EMTs who responded to the boat at midnight found Nolan-O’Slattara dead — cold to the touch, covered in blood, and purpling under her nailbeds.She was completely clothed on a bed on the boa...